


optimism

by anthropologicalhands



Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Post-Movie, Road to Ninja
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-14
Updated: 2015-09-14
Packaged: 2018-04-20 17:30:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,271
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4796147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anthropologicalhands/pseuds/anthropologicalhands
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the events of the movie, RtN!Sakura and Charasuke catch up, and something interesting comes to life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	optimism

**Author's Note:**

> I actually started this oneshot over a year ago, well before the manga ended. It’s weird seeing how your writing has changed, and I apologize for any unevenness. Also, the massacre still happened in this ‘verse, which is an inspiration I got from the doujinshi The Road to SasuSaku.

There was an Uchiha on her balcony and a rose in front of her face.

Neither occurrence was unusual in Sakura’s life. Sasuke had started handing roses out shortly after they all hit puberty, and it was rare that a day passed by where he didn’t try to offer one to his so-called “favorite”.

That being said—

Instead of offering the rose to her with his customary flourish, today it was dangled upside down in front of her face, carrot-like.

If Sasuke had had the audacity to try presenting a rose with his usual flirtatious prattle, after her stressful experience in the other world, Sakura would have decked him.

Instead she found herself diverted, and indulged in her impulse to reach up and pluck it out of Sasuke’s grasp.

He, in turn, only held it further out of range.

She scowled up at him, though despite her best efforts she could not entirely hide her amusement.

“ _Really_ , Sasuke? I would have thought you would be over the moon the day I accepted one of your roses.”

He just gave her a cheeky grin.

“You’ve accepted flowers from me before.” He pointed out, jumping nimbly off the railing of her balcony to land besides her. He mimicked her posture, leaning on his elbows, one leg crossed over the other. “It isn’t that remarkable an event.”

“The bouquets? I know for a fact you custom order those from the Yamanaka and I  _refuse_  to let Ino-chan’s hard work go to waste.” She sniffed loudly and turned back to look over Konoha. 

He was close enough that their elbows brushed. Normally, she might shift away, but the familiar contact was comforting. It grounded her. Three days back in her rightful world, two days out of the hospital, and she was still ill at ease in her surroundings.

“Well, the other you accepted my rose, so I thought there might be a chance you  _did_  like them, after all.”

…Well. No wonder he was so pleased with himself.

Sakura scowled genuinely this time. “Did you really not know it was me?”

Sasuke had the grace to look faintly embarrassed. “I just thought you took a hit to the head on your last mission. She has the same mannerisms you do.  _All_  of them. She scrunched up her nose whenever she got confused, pulled at the hem of her shirt when she was nervous—”

“I don’t need a laundry list, Sasuke,” said Sakura in exasperation. “But she couldn’t have been _completely_  like me. No one else was the same in that other world.”

Sasuke said nothing but allowed his gaze flicker clinically over Sakura; she shifted and hoped he missed her blush.

“I guess you’re right,” he said finally. “She was definitely cuter. She doesn’t hide her feelings very well; she  _really_  freaked out when I came up here to see her. Like I’ve never seen you half-dressed before.”

“You  _ogled_  her?” Sakura’s fists clenched and she forced herself to take a calming breath.

Sasuke held up his hands in a placating gesture. “I didn’t see anything. She was wearing a bathrobe by the time she came out here, and  _I promise_  I was a perfect gentleman.”

Sakura sighed and looked back down at her feet, idly scuffing the stone. “Of course you were. Sorry.” Sasuke might insinuate and be a  _terrible_  tease, but he always respected boundaries. It would be unfair to accuse him of behaving otherwise.

“Don’t mention it.” His posture was tense, but as he realized he would not be on the receiving end of one of her famous right hooks, he relaxed again. He looked curiously at her, his head tilted to one side.

“So…”

Sakura looked back up at him. “What?”

He leaned back against the railing. “Do you want to talk about what happened?”

“I gave the report to Tsunade-shishou already. If you want to read it, it’s there.”

“ _Sakura._ ” Sasuke just looked at her, his grin gone.

It was rare to see Sasuke without his foolish smile, and Sakura felt ashamed of her abruptness. This was a new feeling, and not one she particularly liked.

She felt him gently touch her shoulder. “I just want to know if something happened to you. Menma’s recovering well. His mother says he’ll be out of the hospital soon enough. But  _you’re_  the one who got stuck in the other world, and you haven’t said a word about it. What happened?”

Apart from Ino-chan, she had told no one else. But Sasuke…Sasuke would understand.

“My parents were in that other world.”

She saw him freeze at the corner of her eye. After that momentary hesitation, he moved closer and wrapped his arms tentatively around her. She leaned against him. This was familiar territory for them. Even when they were thirteen and she was baffled by his flirtations and hiding a fledgling crush of her own, there was always this understanding between them. The situations were different, certainly—Sasuke’s family was murdered while Sakura’s parents died as heroes. But they shared that deep, bone-aching loneliness that never truly went away.

They had a lot in common, really. It was just that more often than not Sasuke enjoyed his flirtations while Sakura found herself disappointed by them, by how irreverently he played with ideas of love.

“What was it like?” he asked, his voice softer now.

“Seeing them?” she shrugged. “It wasn’t like I had a lot of memories to go on, so I didn’t have many expectations. My father wasn’t the Hokage—he and my mom might have even just been genin. But they thought I was their Sakura, and it was…I don’t know.”

Her voice caught in her throat. She rubbed at her eyes, praying that Sasuke wouldn’t see her cry. But if he saw he said nothing, and she managed to regain control of herself.

“Sorry,” she muttered.

“You don’t have to talk about it. I’m sorry I asked.”

“Don’t be, you were asking because you cared. They just felt so  _warm._  I could easily imagine myself growing up with them.”

“They were who you expected?”

Sakura smiled. “They were. My other self is a lucky one.” She turned to look at him, a little smile ready to show that she was all right, but it faltered at the look in his eyes. Almost a longing.

“I’m glad for you.” There was a pause, as though Sasuke was bracing himself.

“What about…my family?” he asked. “I mean, if everything was different there, they would be alive, wouldn’t they?”

His tone was too casual to be genuine.

Sakura looked at the ground, furious with herself. This was something she should have expected. It was logical, wasn’t it? If her parents were alive in the other world, why wouldn’t Sasuke’s family be as well?

But she hadn’t seen a single uchiwa fan during her time in the village. Yes, she had been confused by the strangeness of the people around her, but she would have known if they were there.

She shook her head.

“Ah. I see.“ Sasuke turned away from her. "I suppose it was foolish to expect otherwise.”

No. She did not mean to—she shouldn’t have said anything.

She tried to make light of it. “Sasuke-kun, it could be anything. I didn’t even see  _you_  there. Maybe you were all having some super secret clan meeting.”

Sasuke didn’t answer. His shoulders were hunched and he seemed to curl into himself. His face remained averted from hers.

“Sasuke…”

Dammit. Flirtatious Sasuke was a pain, but a pain that could be amusing, one she had years of experience handling. He bounced back from everything. “It doesn’t mean anything. I mean, not _everything_  was different. Hinata still had her crush on Menma—ah—Naruto, even if she was shy. And Ino-chan was still my best friend, even if she was  _incredibly_  bossy. Seriously, that one was almost as bad as Hinata is here.”

“Really? I would pay to see that.”

It wasn’t enough.

“Sasuke, I wasn’t there for that long, I don’t know  _anything_  for sure—”

“Sakura, I get it.” Sasuke gave her a small, pained smile. “I was just, if you had seen anything…”

He let his head fall into his hands and took a deep breath.

“That other world must be really something, huh?” His voice was too strained. “If your parents were alive and the other Sakura liked me so much.”

Oh, this was not what she wanted.

She sighed.

At the very least, she should correct this false impression he was under. It would not be right to let it continue.

“That’s not what makes the other Sakura different from me.“

Sasuke looked her with a raised eyebrow. Confusion: good. At least it wasn’t gloom.

“What did you say?”

Sakura took a deep breat, and pushed onwards. “The other Sakura being in love with you. I didn’t meet her, so I can’t tell what really separates us. But love…That isn’t what makes her different from me.”

“Wait… _what?_ ” Sasuke’s confusion morphed into widened eyes and a dropped jaw. No words came out.

And he gets it, thought Sakura. She studied the skyline of Konoha, to hide her rising blush.

She just upended their entire relationship because she couldn’t stand to see him unhappy. Sakura Haruno: Hokage’s daughter, apprentice to Tsunade and, it turned out, a complete sucker for a sad, pretty face.

She was an _idiot_.

Sasuke was looking at her like he had been kicked in the head by Kakashi.

“You  _love_  me?”

“Platonically, I have always loved you,” she said quickly, crossing her arms and looking away. “What I’m saying now is that your romantic feelings are not… _entirely_  unrequited.”

“But you hate my flirting! You said it wouldn’t be a good idea!”

“I’m still not sure it is! But as your head has deflated I have grown more receptive to the notion.”

She glanced back over at him. He was grinning, his joy making her heart give an involuntary lurch.

Oh no…

Sakura braced herself right as he whooped and lifted her clear off her feet in a tight embrace, spinning her around the balcony.

“This doesn’t change anything,” she insisted, backing away as soon as he set her down.

“But it  _does_ ,” insisted Sasuke, now smiling so widely she thought his face might get stuck that way. “A few days ago I thought you would never love me. And now, you might.”

“If I give you a chance.”

“Won’t you? I mean it’s out there now. Why wouldn’t you?”

“You’re a flirt. You have several girlfriends. Why should I?”

He scowled. “I don’t have any girlfriends. I  _never_  have. And I wouldn’t ask you out if I did!”

He sounded deeply offended.

Sakura was momentarily thrown. Sasuke, who had girls hanging off of him every day of the week…never had any girlfriends?

“Then what am I hearing about in the bathhouse?” she demanded.

“You talk about me in the bathhouse?” asked Sasuke, intrigued. He laughed at Sakura’s annoyed huff. “All right, stupid question, I’m sorry. I don’t have girlfriends but I  _have_  gone on dates. They’re _fun_. But if I’m with you, I wouldn’t.”

“Really?”

“Never,” he said, and she was startled by the fervor in his voice. “Why would I? If you want to try this, I’ll do anything to make it work.”

He looked so earnest and open and just utterly  _happy_ , that Sakura found that she really had no inclination to say ‘no’, as had been her reflex these past several years in order not to ruin either their teamwork or friendship.

But…perhaps this wouldn’t be some disastrous experiment.

“We should start small,” said Sakura, thinking aloud. “No formal dates. I don’t think I could handle dressing up and going out just yet. Nothing that will cause gossip until we can figure a few things out.”

“I’ll follow your lead.” Sasuke’s grin was softer now, more boyish and less cocky. She could not help smiling in return.

“Why don’t you meet with me for a walk, then?” she asked. “Tomorrow? Around three?”

“I won’t miss it.”

“No roses.”

“None whatsoever.”

Sakura nodded. “Then it’s a date.”

“Right.” Sasuke tucked his hands into his pockets; one of his habits when he was nervous and trying to play it off. “So I will, uh, see you at training, beforehand?”

“Of course. We’ll go our separate ways for a few hours and meet back up at the riverbank.”

“All right. Good. Well, I should,uh, get home then.”

“See you tomorrow,” said Sakura, clasping her hands behind her back; her own nervous tic.

“See you tomorrow.”

And, because it wouldn’t be Sasuke if he didn’t make at least one audacious gesture, he reached out, cupped her face in his hands and brought her in for a kiss. But rather than going for her mouth, he only pressed his lips softly against her cheek before moving away. He smiled one last time at her, brilliant and beautiful, before turning and jumping off her balcony.

Sakura stood rooted in the spot for several moments before she recovered.

“ _Sasuke!_ ” She yelled, fruitlessly, after him.

Her only answer was his laughter, drifting up from the street below.

Everything tingled from his kiss; not just her face. She traced its outline, trying to alleviate the sensation, and sighed.

This was too impulsive of her: both the confession and the date to come.

But it was Sasuke, her friend and ally, no matter what. If there was anyone who would be worth the risk, perhaps it would be him.

And, carefully, she allowed herself to smile.


End file.
